Pompey

, or P0MPEIUS (CNEius), surnamed Magnus, or the Great, was of a noble Roman family, the son
| of Pompeius Strabo, and Lucilia. He was born the same
year with Cicero, but nine months later, namely, in the
consulship of Csepio and Serranus, 105 years before the
Christian sera. His father was a general of great abilities,
and under him he learned the art of war. When he was
only twenty-three he raised three legions, which he led to
Sylla. Three years after, he drove the opponents of Sylla
from Africa and Sicily. Young as he was, he had already
won the soldiers sufficiently, by his mildness and military
talents, to excite the jealousy of Sylla, who therefore recalled him to Rome. His soldiers would have detained
him in spite of the dictator’s orders, but he obeyed, and
was rewarded on his arrival by the name of Magnus, given
him by Sylla, and soon after confirmed unanimously by his
countrymen. He obtained also the honours of a triumph,
which the dictator permitted rather unwillingly, and was
the first instance of a Roman knight, who had not risen to
any magistracy, being advanced to that elevation. This
was in 81 B. C. In a short time, he had obtained as much
power by the voluntary favour of the people, as Sylla had
before by arms and after the death of that extraordinary
man, obliged Lepidus to quit Rome, and then undertook
the war against Sertorius in Spain, which he brought to a
fortunate conclusion. For this victory he triumphed a second time, B. C. 73, being still only in the rank of a knight.
Not long afterwards he was chosen consul. In that office
he re-established the power of the tribunes; and, in the
course of a few years, exterminated the pirates who infested the Mediterranean, gained great advantages against
Tigranes and Mithriclates, and carried his victorious arms
into Media, Albania, Iberia, and the most important parts
of Asia; and so extended the boundaries of the Roman
empire, that Asia Minor, which before formed the extremity of its provinces, now became, in a manner, the centre
of them. When he returned to receive a triumph for these
victories, he courted popularity by dismissing his troops
and entering the city as a private citizen. He triumphed
with great splendour but not feeling his influence such as
he had hoped, he united with Caesar and Crassus to form
the first triumvirate. He strengthened his union with
Ccesar by marrying his daughter Julia; he was destined
nevertheless to find in Caesar not a friend, but too successful a rival. While Caesar was gaining in his long Gallic
wars a fame and a power that were soon to be invincible,
| Pompey was endeavouring to cultivate his popularity and
influence in Rome. Ere long they took directly contrary
parties. Pompey became the hope and the support of the
patricians and the senate, while Caesar was the idol of the
people. On the return of the latter from Gaul, in the
year 51 A. C. the civil war broke out, which terminated,
as is well known, by the defeat of Pompey in the battle of
Pharsalia, A. C. 49, and the base assassination of him by
the officers of Ptolemy in Egypt. It appears that Pompey
had not less ambition than Caesar, but was either more
scrupulous, or less sagacious and fortunate in his choice of
means to gratify that passion. He was unwilling to throw
off the mask of virtue and moderation, and hoped to gain
every thing by intrigue and the appearance of transcendant
merit. In this he might have been successful, had he not
been opposed to a man whose prompt and decisive measures disconcerted his secret plans, drove things a once to
extremities, and forced him to have recourse to the decision of arms, in which victory declared against him. The
moderate men, and those who were sincerely attached to
the republic of Rome, dreaded, almost equally, the success
of Pompey and of Caesar. Cato, who took the mourning
habit on the breaking out of the civil war, had resolved
upon death if Caesar should be victorious, and exile if sue*
cess should declare for Pompey. 1

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